Police try to squeeze rioters’ names from COBUSU leaders

Police try to squeeze rioters’ names from COBUSU leaders
Written by Mwila Chansa in Kitwe
Wednesday, August 19, 2009 6:15:00 PM

POLICE in Kitwe have turned the heat on Copperbelt University Students Union (COBUSU) leaders to reveal names of students that took part in last week’s riot or take the responsibility.

But Copperbelt division commanding officer Antoneil Mutentwa said investigations on who was involved in the riot were on-going and that the union leaders were just among the list of people to be interviewed so far.

COBUSU secretary general Kenneth Sampa confirmed in an interview yesterday that police told him and his president Kasonde Mwenda that the case might fall on them if they failed to provide the names of the students who rioted and burnt a private vehicle belonging to a 76-year-old man.

"They said by virtue of us being on the scene, we should provide them with names. But we told them that we can't know all the students in campus and besides, there were a lot of strange faces," Sampa explained.

He said he felt victimised by the statement that failure to furnish police with names would mean that he be implicated in the case.

"We are thinking of engaging a lawyer but we have problems with money at the moment so we are planning to go to Legal Aid Board this [yesterday] afternoon," he said.

Sampa said on the actual night of the riot, he and Mwenda had gone to the roadside to try and restrain the students from engaging in violence and that they even called the dean of students to inform him of that.

And Mwenda said police labelled students’ representatives as suspects by virtue of them being leaders.

"But we told them that we did not authorise the riot. The students are gone and police were not there on the scene, so I don't know how they expect to know who was involved," Mwenda wondered.

However, he said he was not scared of the investigation because COBUSU leaders were nowhere near to guilty over what transpired.

But Mutentwa said he was not aware that the COBUSU leaders were told that if they did not furnish police with names then the case would fall on them.

"Well, I am not aware of that and I was not part of the interviewing panel. But that is not how we operate as police because that would be tantamount to blackmail which would not help us secure a conviction," said Mutentwa. "That is not an official stance of the police. We don't work like that. Our investigations are still going on and we'll be interviewing other people. The student leaders were just part of that list."